Rene has a tongue thrust, where her tongue pushes on her upper front teeth every time she swallows, and when she makes certain sounds. She's been in speech for S-sounds because of the tongue thrust, and her front teeth are slowly flaring out. She has been seeing an orthodontist, Dr. Sherman, and today she got an orthodontic appliance called a tongue crib. It blocks her tongue from pushing on her teeth, and retrains it to stay back when she swallows. It also includes a bead for her to spin with her tongue as part of the tongue re-training. Rene has done very well with all the procedures. She will have the tongue crib for about 6 months, and after that she may need braces on the 4 front teeth to get them back into their original places.
Here's a before pic of her teeth, and one of her bead (Dr. Sherman let her pick the color - she chose lavender). So far it's not bothering her much, but she's been reluctant to eat.